The counsellor heart," the arm our foldier, In this our fabrick, if that they MEN. What then? 'Fore me, this fellow fpeaks !-what then? what then? 1 CIT. Should by the cormorant belly be re ftrain'd, Who is the fink o'the body,— MEN. Well, what then? 1 CIT. The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer? I will tell you; MEN. If you'll bestow a fmall (of what you have little,) Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's answer. 1 CIT. You are long about it. MEN. Note me this, good friend; Your most grave belly was deliberate, Not rafh like his accufers, and thus anfwer'd. 7 The counsellor heart,] The heart was anciently esteemed the feat of prudence. Homo cordatus is a prudent man. JOHNSON. The heart was confidered by Shakspeare as the feat of the understanding. See the next note. MALONE. 8 to the feat o' the brain ;] feems to me a very languid expreffion. I believe we should read, with the omiffion of a particle: And, through the cranks and offices of man," Even to the court, the heart, to the feat, the brain. He uses feat for throne, the royal feat, which the first editors probably not apprehending, corrupted the paffage. It is thus used in Richard II. A& III. fc. iv: "Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills Against thy feat.' It should be observed too, that one of the Citizens had just before characterized these principal parts of the human fabrick by fimilar metaphors: "The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye, "The counfellor heart,." TYRWHITT. I have too great respect for even the conjectures of my refpectable and very judicious friend, to fupprefs his note, though it appears to me erroneous. In the prefent inftance I have not the fmalleft doubt, being clearly of opinion that the text is right. Brain is here ufed for reafon or understanding. Shakspeare feems to have had Camden as well as Plutarch before him; the former of whom has told a fimilar ftory in his Remains, 1605, and has likewife made the heart the feat of the brain, or understanding "Hereupon they all agreed to pine away their lafie and publike enemy. One day paffed over, the fecond followed very tedious, but the third day was fo grievous to them, that they called a common counfel. The eyes waxed dimme, the feete could not support the body, the armes waxed lazie, the tongue faltered, and could not lay open the matter. Therefore they all with one accord defired the advice of the heart. There REASON laid open before them," &c. Remains, p. 109. See An Attempt to afcertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. II. in which a circumftance is noticed, that fhows our author had read Camden as well as Plutarch. I agree, however, entirely with Mr. Tyrwhitt, in thinking that feat means here the royal feat, the throne. The feat of the brain, is put in oppofition with the heart, and is descriptive of it. "I fend it, (fays the belly,) through the blood, even to the royal refidence, the heart, in which the kingly-crowned underftanding fits enthroned. So, in King Henry VI. P. II: "The rightful heir to England's royal feat." In like manner in Twelfth-Night our author has erected the throne of love in the heart: "It gives a very echo to the feat "Where love is throned." From me receive that natural competency me, 1 CIT. Ay, fir; well, well. MEN. Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each; Yet I can make my audit up, that all What fay you to't? 1 CIT. It was an answer: How apply you this? MEN. The fenators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members: For examine Their counfels, and their cares; digeft things rightly, Touching the weal o'the common; you shall find, But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, → 1 CIT. I the great toe? Why the great toe? MEN. For that being one o'the loweft, bafeft, poorest, Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost: Thou rafcal, that art worst in blood, to run Again, in Othello: "Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne." See alfo a paffage in King Henry V. where feat is used in the fame fenfe as here; Vol. XII. p. 310, n. 7. MALONE. 9 the cranks and offices of man,] Cranks are the meandrous ducts of the human body. STEEVENS. Cranks are windings. So, in Venus and Adonis : "He cranks and croffes, with a thousand doubles." MALONE. Lead'ft firft to win fome vantage.'— But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; Thou rafcal, that art worst in blood, to run Lead fi firft, to win some vantage.] I think, we may better read, by an eafy change: Thou rafcal, thou art worst in blood, to ruin Lead ft first, to win &c. Thou that art the meaneft by birth, art the foremost to lead thy fellows to ruin, in hope of fome advantage. The meaning, however, is perhaps only this, Thou that art a hound, or running dog of the lowest breed, lead'ft the pack, when any thing is to be gotten. JOHNSON. Worft in blood may be the true reading. In King Henry VI. P. I: "If we be English deer, be then in blood." i.e. high fpirits, in vigour. Again, in this play of Coriolanus, A& IV. fc. v: "But when they fhall fee his creft up again, and the man in blood," &c. Mr. M. Mafon judiciously observes that blood, in all these paffages, is applied to deer, for a lean deer is called a rascal; and that worst in blood," is leaft in vigour. STEEVENS. Both rafcal and in blood are terms of the foreft. Rafcal meant a lean deer, and is here used equivocally. The phrase in blood has been proved in a former note to be a phrase of the forest. See Vol. XII. p. 126, n. 7. Our author feldom is careful that his comparisons should answer on both fides. He feems to mean here, thou, worthless fcoundrel, though, like a deer not in blood, thou art in the worst condition for running of all the herd of plebeians, takeft the lead in this tumult, in order to obtain fome private advantage to yourfelf. What advantage the foremost of a herd of deer could obtain, is not easy to point out, nor did Shakspeare, I believe, confider. Perhaps indeed he only ufes rafcal in its ordinary fenfe. So afterwards "From rafcals worse than they." Dr. Johnson's interpretation appears to me inadmissible; as the term, though it is applicable both in its original and metaphorical sense to a man, cannot, I think, be applied to a dog; nor have I found any inftance of the term in blood being applied to the canine species. MALONE. Enter CAIUS MARCIUS. MAR. Thanks.-What's the matter, you diffentious rogues, That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, 1 CIT. We have ever your good word. MAR. He that will give good words to thee, will flatter Beneath abhorring.-What would you have, you curs, That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, Or hailftone in the fun. Your virtue is, To make him worthy, whose offence subdues him, And curfe that juftice did it.4 Who déserves great nefs, 2 The one fide must have bale.] Bale is an old Saxon word, for mifery or calamity: For light the hated as the deadly bale.” Spenfer's Fairy Queen. Mr. M. Mafon obferves that " bale, as well as bane, fignified poifon in Shakspeare's days. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers." STEEVENS. This word was antiquated in Shakspeare's time, being marked as obfolete by Bullokar, in his English Expofitor, 1616. MALONE. 3 That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud.] Coriolanus does not use these two fentences confequentially, but first reproaches them with unfteadiness, then with their other occafional vices. JOHNSON, Your virtue is, To make him worthy, whofe offence fubdues him, And curfe that justice did it.] i. e. Your virtue is to speak |